Al.com reports that the milestone is cause for major celebration in Huntsville and across Alabama, as the military post is one of the state's major economic engines.

It's home to the headquarters of the Army Materiel Command, Aviation and Missile Command, Space & Missile Defense Command, Missile Defense Agency, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and training and development centers for the FBI.

Since opening in 1941 as the Army's chemical weapons development site, it transformed Huntsville from the watercress capital of the world to the community known as Rocket City.